Ok, so I have a pet snail. That may seem a little weird, but let me explain.
I acquired a pet fish during the winter semester of '09. My roommate had asked me to watch him until she was able to come back for the next school semester. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to return as intended, and so I ended up adopting. I didn't really mind the new, unplanned, mouth to feed, he was nice company and a good listener. He had been originally named Van, but during a conversation my roommate and I had during the time we had been living together, she had mentioned that a particular girl she knew was "such a flossy"... (She was from Burma and, although very fluent in English, still had trouble with a few English words) ..I laughed and pointed out that she most-likely had meant to say "floozy". We both found humor in the mistake and would joke about it occasionally. One day, referencing our conversation, I called Van the "Little Flossy" of the house, and the name stuck. From then on, for short, we called him Flossy.
In my most recent semester of school, Flossy seemed depressed and my roommate, Lauren, decided that it was because he was lonely and needed a friend. Since he was a Beta fish (known for attacking anything within it's path) she decided that the new friend should be one with armor on. This is were my pet snail came in. His name has never been concrete, but has varied between Gary, Scribble, Stinker, and a few other names that I can't remember...
The most recent name settled on has been Mr. Gwibb.
Well, the sad news about Flossy is that he has passed on. When I left for California this most recent semester break, we left Flossy and Mr. Gwibb in the care of a friend and, unfortunately, the day we were going to pick him up, Flossy had been alive that morning, but died right before we saw him. :( I didn't attend the ceremonial flushing- it would have been too much for me to bear watching his little body washed away to sea.
I knew that he understood.
Rest in peace my dear Flossy.
Ok, well now I have a pet snail.
I guess I don't mind having Mr. Gwibb as a pet... Afterall, he is a good listener too.
I just thought that it might be obscure for someone to ask:
"Do you have any pets?"
and, in response, answer:
"Yes, I have a pet snail."
=/
To be honest, I wasn't immediately sure how to care for a lone-snail, so I kept feeding the tankwater fish food, in hopes that it would create a film on the walls for him to eat. He seemed to be doing fine for a few weeks and then, without warning, I found him floating at the top of the tank, belly up. Occasionally, I had seen him do this for luxury- floating on his back, breathing in the surface air, soaking in the florescent rays of our kitchen- but he usually stretched out comfortably, enjoying the spacious room he dwells in. This was different. He was all curled up and I was SURE he was dead...
I decided to wait until the end of the day to be positive.
Sure enough, he was still curled up by the evening, and I knew he was a gonner- poor guy. I decided I would take care of the corpse the next morning.
However, when I woke the next day, he was suctioned to the walls, happily devouring algae!!!!
How did this happen, you ask?
There's only one explanation: A miracle.
hahahahahaha. It's a miracle. Be careful with Mr. Gwibb and other fish, though, because remember when I bought Dad those fishes and the snail-tank- cleaner ate them all and then gave birth to about 1700 other snails? I do. That half eaten fish is scarred onto my retinas.
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